He says the Opposition's proposals show a lack of understanding of Indonesia, and that it is not possible to buy every boat from the thousands of Indonesian villagers.

The Coalition's plan also includes increasing the number of Australian Federal Police officers working overseas, boosting Indonesia's search and rescue capabilities, and supplementing Australia's border protection fleet.

But Professor Hikmahanto says putting more Australian police in Indonesia is offensive to Indonesian authorities.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey told Channel Ten's The Project the intention of the policy has been misinterpreted.

"If you can disrupt the activity of the people smugglers, if they're about to load a boat with people there, and you can pay to take the boat from under them, then great, that disrupts their activity," he said.

"I think that's part of the equation, but it's not the whole equation, obviously. So I don't think we're going to be buying every boat in Indonesia."